30 + 6 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Las Vegas

Developer Stefan Brück at alea describes Las Vegas as “an easy, dice-rolling, fun-and-luck game with a lot of interaction and ‘schadenfreude'”. Who doesn’t love schadenfreude? (Well, other than those being schadened, I suppose…)

In more detail, Las Vegas includes six cardboard casino mats, one for each side of a normal six-sided die. For each mat, players draw money cards until at least $50k is showing, but the amount may end up being a lot more, making that casino more desirable.

Each player has eight dice of a different color, which they take turns rolling. When you roll your dice, you can choose to place them on the relevant casino cards; for example, a die showing a 1 will be placed on the casino mat marked “1”. You must place at least one die per turn, although you may place more. All players take turns doing this until all the dice have been used. Finally, the player with the most dice on each casino card takes the money associated with it. In case of a tie, the next non-tied player takes the highest-valued money card at that casino.

Las Vegas rates a 1 out of 10 on alea’s difficulty scale.

You are architects that must complete three different buildings by using Blueprints. Who will be the best architect? 1. Get your Blueprint 2. Each turn, choose a die that you will use to erect your building. 3. Reveal your building and find out who wins the awards and prizes. After a few rounds, you will see who was able to build his way to victory!

Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan. You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city. But that’s not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja’s court. You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.

A card game full of surprises for seasoned traders!

In the Old West, sly snake oil salesmen had the special talent of getting even the most skeptical customer to buy the most dubious product. In Snake Oil, that’s exactly what the players get to do! One player draws a card and becomes the Customer while the other players each select two Word Cards from their hands to create a product to pitch to the Customer. Laughter erupts as each player attempts to persuade the Customer that their item is the best! The Customer picks their favorite item and that player is awarded the Customer Card. The player with the most Customer Cards wins!

Splendor is a fast-paced and addictive game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops — all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card — in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don’t get it — you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.

All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.

Welcome to the city of Machi Koro, the Japanese card game that is sweeping the world!

Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow the sleepy town of Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors coffers (just make sure they aren’t doing the same to you)!

They say you can’t build Rome in a day, but Machi Koro will be built in under 30 minutes!

Blood Bound is a game of deduction, bluffing, and betrayal for six to twelve players. Each player belongs to one of two rival vampire clans, and fellow clan members must work together to capture the opposing clan’s leader. The catch? Identities are hidden at the start of the game, disguising ally and enemy alike. By attacking other players and forcing them to reveal information about their identity, players must distinguish friend from foe, and root out the rival leader!

Blood Bound provides a fun and fast-paced social experience. Unique abilities for each character ensure dynamic play scenarios. Ideal for larger gaming groups or parties, Blood Bound supports up to twelve players.

Rivet Wars is a miniatures boardgame that springs forth from the warped imagination of Ted Terranova – set on a world that never quite left World War I but with crazy technology like walking tanks, diesel powered armor, unicycled vehicles and armor plated cavalry!

Don’t let the cute visuals fool you, it’s a world full of angst, war-torn camaraderie and dark humor.

Rivet Wars is at its heart a strategy game, with both players deploying units each round to counter the threats set forth by their opponent and stay one tactical step ahead.

Heavily influenced by Ted’s experience working on RTS games like Rise of Nations, players gather resources (bunkers and capture points) and use these to deploy streams of new units!

There’s an ebb and flow on the tactical landscape and you can stock up surprises for your opponent to be unleashed even as he thinks he’s winning!

Here, where space is endless and time is precious, you face the challenges of a true space commander. From the bustling hub that is your control center, you coordinate your planet’s production, transport, and demand, and travel to other planets to fulfill orders.

Time ‘N’ Space is a real-time, action-selection, production management, pickup-and-deliver game for 3-4 players that plays in exactly 30 minutes. In that time, you must produce goods and manage as many deliveries as possible to fulfill the demands on planets, while the other players are trying to do the same thing.

However, the most unique aspect of Time ‘N’ Space is the action-selection mechanism in which each of your actions requires the flip of a one-minute sand timer. Each player has only two of these timers available, so you’ll need to keep a cool head and your communication channels wide open to arrange for the most opportune deals with each of the other players!

In Panic on Wall Street! you take on the role of a freewheeling capitalist out to outmaneuver your competitors and earn your place as a great industrialist.

Players are divided into managers and investors. Your goal is to earn more money than any other manager (if you are a manager) or more money than any other investor (if you are a investor) by the end of the fifth round.

Each round managers and investors negotiate with each other in a noisy, two-minute free-for-all to set a purchase price for shares in the managers’ companies. Investors then collect income from the shares they purchased but not until a roll of the dice brings (sometimes drastic) changes to the economy, with major consequences for the balance sheet of each player. Managers collect what they are owed from investors, pay fees for each of their companies, and buy new companies at auction.

After five rounds of play (5 months), the manager and the investor who have accumulated the most money are each declared victors, the undisputed masters of commerce.

Las Vegas

Blueprints

Jaipur

Snake Oil

Splendor

Machi Koro

Blood Bound

Rivet Wars

Time ‘n’ Space

Panic on Wall Street!

Feeds